The Bastards Want Our Homes: Join The New Era Estate Tenants And Let’s Show Them We Intend To Fight

Tenants on the New Era Estate in Hackney have been threatened with the ultimate revenge eviction by shadowy property developers and investment firm Westbrook Partners.

The New Era estate has provided homes at affordable rents to local people since the 1930s – although current rents of around £600 a month are hardly cheap for someone on a low income. When the properties were bought by Westbrook earlier in the year rents were immediately hiked by 10%. Then residents were informed that the company planned to bring rents up to the same levels as the local private sector, where even small flats can fetch well over £2000 a month.

Alongside Westbrook in this nasty attempt at social cleansing were Benyon Estates who also bought a small stake in the properties. This company is owned by Tory Richard Benyon, believed to be the UK’s richest MP. A series of bold and well supported protests recently led this company to sell their stake in the estate. The response from Westbrook was immediate, with residents receiving notice from the local council that the company would no longer honour an agreement to freeze rents until 2016 and even suggested that the tenants could be evicted before Christmas.

The tenants have vowed to continue their fight, beginning with a twitterstorm tomorrow to help bring attention to the vile Westbrook Partners. This is a fight that needs to be won. A recent report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation warned that millions more people are set to face poverty due to soaring rents. In truth it’s happening already. As wages and benefits shrink, rents continue to soar in many parts of the country. That money ends up in the pockets of faceless greedy bastards like Westbrook Managing Principal Mark Donner. It’s time to show the world who they are and hold them to account for their destruction of our homes and communities.

81 responses to “The Bastards Want Our Homes: Join The New Era Estate Tenants And Let’s Show Them We Intend To Fight”

In an effort to bolster the numbers of people dying from benefit related cuts, the DWP are now using their resident faceless, anonymous comedian to spout utter shit………………….

The whole name of the game within the DWP ranks has now become, denial of responsibility for the hugely embarrassing death rates of UK citizens.

Nobody at the DWP is prepared to put their own name to a statement, fearing reprisals through the justice system.

It is common knowledge that food banks are inextricably linked to benefit claims, moreso claims and sanctions that are deliberately withheld as a form of punishment,

DWP always insist that sanctions are only applied as a last resort but insider information reveals this not to be the case. Counter staff are put under pressure by their immediate bosses who in turn are threatened with their jobs.

The cycle of hate is getting so out of hand that Brixham food banks are struggling to survive, this in turn means claimants face the possibility of being turned away and left to die.

A tinder box of dissent of how the DWP treat human beings is smouldering………………
How long till a life is taken, may be only minutes away, there has already been an attack at a jobcentre and thousands of lesser incidents.

Everybody has a right to a life wherever you stand on the totem pole of life, evolution is being seen to turn backwards at an alarming rate.

The DWP has disclosed a redacted version of its contract with
Maximus on the contractsfinder web site. There has clearly been
significant redaction of the contract but the DWP has not explained
the exemptions it is claiming in order to justify its actions.

Please provide me with:
– all the redacted information or cite the relevant statutory
exemptions claimed by the DWP (obviously the DWP will have this
information to hand in order to have carried out thee redactions).

– the names of any whole schedules or documents that have been
withheld and therefore do not appear on the contractsfinder web
site.

– The detailed transition plan specified in Task ID 18 in the
document HDAS – Schedule 17 (MSA Transition Agreement) Schedule A
(I assume that the plan will be approved before this RFI is
detailed with).

There are a number of chronic health conditions that permanently
deteriorate (e.g. certain types of MS, Motor Neuron disease and so
on). Whilst it is entirely reasonable that some people with such
conditions might be capable of work in the early stages of their
illness, sadly there always comes a point where they will cease to
be capable of any kind of work related activity.

Please provide me with any guidance that the DWP/Atos/Capita
provides to Health Care Professionals and Decision Makers in
respect of setting the appropriate prognosis (i.e. when should the
person be re-examined again) for ESA claimants where they have
reached the point outlined in the paragraph above.

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request of 29 September 2014. You asked:

“The Universal Credit Chief Executive stated on 12th March 2013 that he intended to produce
a “clear blueprint and transition plan that will enable the safe and successful completion to
Universal Credit by 2017”.

Could you please supply or publish

1 – a copy of this blueprint
2 – a copy of the transition plan

You previously stated that early publication of these documents could jeopardise the progress
of Universal Credit. Clearly, that could not be the case now, so I’d be grateful if you could
release them.”

Our response to your Freedom Of Information request dated 21 August 2013 still applies, the
information you have requested is still being withheld as it falls under the exemption in Section
36(2)(b) and (c) of the Freedom of Information Act. I attach a copy of this response.

“Claimants can ask to have their face-to-face assessment for the WCA audio recorded and al
requests will be accommodated where possible. However, there is no legal right to an audio
recorded assessment.”

…………………………….strangely, what they omit to tell you, is that there is no legal barrier for the claimant to record the WCA examination themselves.
Anybody can record whatever they choose to do, just watch the HCP’S scurry when being faced with the ultimate deterrent !!!!!

What will happen when the ‘elite’ have ethnically cleansed London? Who will the dickheads use to look after their kids, teach their kids, serve them their quails eggs and all that shit in the restaurants, if their houses are on fire, who will be there? There will be no-one left to do the shitty jobs they rely on. I hope they all die a very painfull death begging for help.

That always reminds me of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy when the book talks about a world that to save money did away with the phone cleaners… which caused a bug which killed of the rest of the world.

I would love to see IDS dying in agony, crying for his mummy, and no-one around to help him, because of his policies all the nurses and carers etc had moved from the centre of London. Let’s see if his rich Russian and Chinese friends who own all of the empty properties will help him out.

The tenants should ignore all eviction notices, should ignore any further rent rises and basically, do a sit in in their own homes. They cannot make all people leave, they cannot make all people pay extortionate rents if everybody sticks together.
These greedy filthy landlords are nothing more than thugs who think that they can do whatever they want – well it’s about time they were shown that they can’t and that people power can break them!

Reblogged this on Jay's Journal and commented:
Lets all stick together on this one, no matter where you live and no matter if you own your own home, rent privately or any other way, we must make this company see that they WON’T be allowed to win…

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/politics/2012/09/how-we-pay-our-richest-landowners the thing that may surprise many is the actual amount of land the masses live on or have to themselves…
“More than a century later, the situation is little improved. The United Kingdom is 60 million acres in size, of which 42 million acres are designated “agricultural” land and 12 million are “natural wastage” (forests, rivers, mountains) owned by institutions such as the Forestry Commission, the Ministry of Defence and the National Trust. The remaining six million acres are the “urban plot”, the densely congested land on which our houses, factories and offices are built. (Most of the 62 million people of these islands live on just three million acres.)”… land use in the uk even of the approx 3m acres in housing use, is very poorly utilized, and there is much more housing land available…house building is deliberately strangled in the uk allowing house prices and rents to soar… http://www.segalselfbuild.co.uk/projects/hedgehogspecific.html

the myth of generational unemployed families exposed.. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/dec/14/worklessness-culture-myth-exposed “The “success rate”, in fact, was below what is said might be expected for longterm unemployed people who have benefited from no advice, help or multimillion pound government intervention. “Difficult economic circumstances” – that is, the lack of jobs – was offered up as the excuse. Perhaps, after all, there is a dawning realisation that the real problem of worklessness might lie not with those who are out of work but with “the economy, stupid”?
Yet myths persist. One of the most influential is that there are “three generations of families where no one has ever worked”. This is an idea first championed by welfare secretary Iain Duncan Smith back in 2009 when he was at the Centre for Social Justice and commenting on housing poverty said: “Life expectancy”

New Era tenants need to know that they cannot be evicted in 2 weeks, regardless of what their contract says. As long as they are paying their current rent, they have at least 2 months. A small comfort, but they can’t let the rentier scum misinform them as to their rights.

if it is not your signing day then they will have to pay bus fair if seeing an adviser its the law they tried it with me till they realised it cost to much i signed every day for a week and cost them 40 quid in fairs as i got single there and back.

and you wont get cash from the jcp it will be paid like ur giro after 3 days in ur bank account 😉

lp ask them next time if you can sign on every day and watch there face and sit there and and smile and say it will be a nice day out every day rather then stuck inside the house, as long as bus fair is paid that is.
🙂

daily signing would do you the world of good lp 🙂 it gets you up and out and about, gives you a trip into town, you might even be able to use the bus ticket to travel elsewhere, you can also do a spot of shopping – those 15p cans of spuds are heavy to carry home on foot 🙂 see what the jobcentre has got to say 😀

I’ve been signing one week and seeing my advisor the other for a month or two now. No big deal as I only live 5 mins from the JCP, but it ain’t doing my nerves any good having that stomach-churning/sweaty armpit ordeal every week!

Normandy, Westbrook to fork out $1M to settle tenant suit
New landlords to handle thousands of building violations and make repairs

Normandy Real Estate Partners and Westbrook Partners have agreed to pay more than $1 million in rebates for overcharges and illegal fees.

Earlier this year, tenants in properties that are part of a 42-building real estate portfolio in foreclosure filed a lawsuit in Bronx Supreme Court against management. The tenants in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan properties claimed that problems ranged from a nearly-bursting pipe to a blocked, broken-down elevator.

At the time the suit was filed, the portfolio was owned by Normandy Real Estate, Vantage Properties, Westbrook Partners and David Kramer, who owns Colonial Management. Vantage Properties and Kramer are not involved with the portfolio anymore.

The state found that Colonial did not adequately maintain the properties. Westbrook and Normandy refinanced the portfolio, which had been in foreclosure for nearly a year. They also fired Colonial and hired Langsam Property Services to take over managing the buildings.

Each tenant in the 1,700 below-market apartments will receive a one-time $600 rent rebate, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“Over one million families live in rent-regulated housing in New York City,” New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a statement provided to the New York Times. “They have a right to decent and safe housing, and a right to organize without being harassed.

Scottish Labour leadership election TV debate Sarah Boyack, Jim Murphy and Neil Findlay going for the localism of Local Authorities and public service workers as a privileged power base to divide the working class and undermine the Scottish Parliament.

Reblogged this on markcatlin3695's Blog and commented:
Greed is good, the insane mantra of the empty greed-fueled people whose only contribution to humanity is to take, take and take again whilst hoarding all they can. Quite happy to watch people being made homeless.

i think its only a matter of time before one of these landlords gets injured or even killed,people are being socialy cleansed out of London that …is…whats going on causeing chaos being deported down to hastings ,margate that are dead its dead down there theres nothing no jobs no hope nothing, this is torie Briton in the 21st century ..god help us we have to start realy fighting back now the directors of westbrook partners should if theres any justice in this world be beaten within an inch of there lives,lol..this whole housing crisis makes me wanna vomit the fucking greed of thease cunts whole parts of London being gentrified and the poorest and most vulnerable being shunted out made homeless..its just a disgrace its so vile..

Attacks on sanction center plus staff are Apparently on a massive increase but largely go unreported it was only less than two weeks ago a woman was hurt in an attack in a Scottish job center , I have also noted at least double the number of G4S goons in my local sanction center in the last 16 months , most are fat bastards who if it really came down to it couldn’t knock a fucking wank out”!

Try and imagine a world where you are stalked 24 hours a day, where the demons of your past are starting to haunt you and everyone is waiting for you to to come down to earth with a crash………..

A world where you are so afraid of the things you have done, that you need someone to try and hide your tracks………….

A world wherever you turn, whatever you do, the thousands that you put to death, are forefront in your mind.

“Such is the burden of the disgraced DWP”

At every turn they are faced with the Welfare Mortality figures that they cannot hide from public view. Try as they may to withhold them, the truth of their pure evil against the weakest will soon be headline news………

Employing a whole department to try to distance themselves from their despicable crimes is costing the tax payer a small fortune, indeed the legal advice must now run into millions.

The sheer wrath of the people weighs heavy like a millstone round the necks of all associated to the state endorsed killing machine, the ghosts of Christmas past must now be an all year round phenomena………….

All those lists of innocent people that you so ignorantly stole the lives from, the despair of the disabled as you stole their right to a life more able, the suffering of the homeless and starving……………………

Your sins are starting to overtake you, accelerating you into a position where your only move is to punish even more.

Every piece of individual legislation that has been written to secure mans oppression you ignore at will…………but for how long?

The mistakes at the DWP are coming thick and fast, the challenges in court an embarrassment. You can buy off the judiciary and police, but you cannot quell the dissent of the very people that pay your wages.

Never forget, you are mere public servants, nothing more nothing less……..

The crimes you have committed are well recorded, the evidence fixed in the glares of the loved ones of those you chose to demonise to the point of no return.

The government has been accused of ignoring evidence of the distress caused by its welfare reforms following publication of a report which directly links cuts to benefits with a massive rise in food bank use.

The study found that cuts and changes to Britain’s increasingly threadbare social security system are the most common triggers of the acute personal financial crises that drive people to use food banks..

At least half of all food bank users are referred because they are waiting for benefits to be paid, because they have had benefits stopped for alleged breaches of jobcentre rules or because they have been hit by the bedroom tax or the removal of working tax credits, it finds.

The study, the most extensive research of its kind yet carried out in the UK, directly challenges the government’s repeated insistence that there is no link between its welfare reforms and the huge increases in charity food aid.

“”””The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) dismissed the report, claiming the research was inconclusive. “The report itself concludes it can’t prove anything – it uses self-selecting data and recognises there are complex underlying issues. We have a strong safety net in place, spending £94bn a year on working-age benefits, and we provide a wide range of advice and assistance for anyone in need of additional support.””””
—————————————————————————————————–
“”””In another twist, a DWP minister, Steve Webb, whose officials had apparently agreed for him to respond in person to the report at the launch, pulled out at the last minute, without giving a reason. David McAuley, the chief executive of the Trussell Trust, said he was frustrated that the DWP had not attended, and accused them of not wanting “to hear the story.”””
——————————————————————————————————

Jobcentre staff ‘sent guidelines on how to deal with claimants’ suicide threats’
Employees ‘receive six-point plan telling them to take each threat seriously’ as clamp on benefits takes effect

According to a senior Jobcentre employee, staff have been sent guidelines advising them on how to cope with clients who say will kill themselves.

Staff working for jobcentres and other Department for Work and Pensions contractors have been given guidelines on how to deal with suicide threats from claimants as the squeeze on benefits takes hold.

A document sent to jobcentre staff in April details what it calls a “new policy for all DWP businesses to help them manage suicide and self-harm declarations from customers”.

The guidelines include a “six-point plan” for staff to follow which says: “Some customers may say they intend to self-harm or kill themselves as a threat or a tactic to ‘persuade’, others will mean it. It is very hard to distinguish between the two … For this reason, all declarations must be taken seriously.”

The internal document was sent to the Guardian by a senior jobcentre employee who has worked for the DWP for more than 20 years. It was accompanied by a letter from the source that said: “Absolutely nobody has ever seen this guidance before, leading staff to believe it has been put together ahead of the incapacity benefit and disability living allowance cuts.”

The employee, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “We were a bit shocked. Are we preparing ourselves to be like the Samaritans? The fact that we’ve dealt with the public for so many years without such guidance has made people feel a bit fearful about what’s coming.”

The DWP said that the new guidelines were not related to any recent policy changes and had been in development since 2009. “This guidance is about supporting our staff and ensuring we can help our customers.

“It is right that a customer-facing organisation that serves over 20 million, including the most vulnerable in our society, has guidance such as this in place.”

The team leader said the guidance had alarmed people in their team: “We’ve suddenly got this new aspect to our job. The bigger picture is people here are wondering how savage these cuts are going to be. And we’re the frontline staff having to deal with the fallout from these changes. ”

Julie Tipping, an appeals officer for Disability Solutions, represents claimants who try to overturn decisions made following work capability assessment tests that they are fit for work.

She says that in the last year, two of her clients have made “real attempts” at suicide after a decision was made that they were fit for work. Both were taken to hospital and subsequently sectioned.

“It’s real and true. A lot of people think these people are crying wolf to get their money, but that’s not the case. They are suffering from real problems and can’t face it any more.”

Tipping said the pressure on vulnerable clients was “the cumulative effect of all these welfare changes. The test is simply not fit for purpose for assessing mental health problems. That’s on top of moving people on to jobseeker’s allowance, and all of the conditionality and risk of sanctions that goes with that.”

The Guardian revealed last month that some jobcentres were setting targets for advisers to stop people’s benefits for not meeting conditions attached to their jobseeker’s allowance.

A whistleblower said that the pressure on staff was leading to vulnerable claimants being targeted for sanctions. The targets have since been removed. But thousands of claimants of incapacity benefit and employment support allowance are being reassessed to see if they should be considered fit for work and moved on to jobseeker’s allowance.

Another jobcentre adviser said: “People have been coming off sickness benefits and thrown onto jobseeker’s allowance. It’s problematic because some customers are clearly not fit to work, and they are clearly very distressed. When you sense this you feel really upset because the system is allowing them to get like this and you feel part of the processing machine.”Eleanor Lisney, of Disabled People Against Cuts, said that the thought of being moved on to jobseeker’s allowance was like a sword hanging over the heads of disabled groups and she feared an increase in related suicides.

“JUST BECAUSE THE GOVERNMENT DENY WELFARE REFORMS ARE THE CAUSE OF FOODBANKS, DOESN’T MEAN IT’S TRUE”

The NAZIS ALSO DENIED KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOLOCAUST, BUT THE HANGMAN BEGGED TO DIFFER………………..

Holocaust denial is the act of denying established facts concerning the genocide of Jews in the Holocaust during World War II.[1][2] Holocaust denial includes any of the following claims: that the German Nazi government’s Final Solution policy aimed only at deporting Jews from the Reich, and included no policy to exterminate Jews; that Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas chambers to mass murder Jews; and that the actual number of Jews killed was significantly (typically an order of magnitude) lower than the historically accepted figure of 5 to 6 million

with universal credit , do all claiments
have to wait (starve) four weeks.for any
money or is it only new claiments ?
after four weeks, do they get money
for the month ahead or have to starve
another four weeks?
universal credit is being introduced
here in central manchester albeit
slowly.

Benefits are always paid in arrears but if you are migrating to UC from another benefit I would imagine they would have to make a transitional payment or a loan to see you through the month. But knowing these bastards they will probably expect you to just manage.

thanks bizzie lizzie
surviving five weeks ,getting the
breadcrumbs to pay for that month
and then surviving the month after…
theyve aready ripped me off near1000
quid in a year..keep thinking of that
lord digby jones ,then head of the
cbi saying on bbc news 3/4years ago
that the out of work should be starved..
dont let these nazis grind us down.

“YOU HAVE BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS, AND SO HAS EVERY DECISION MAKER HAVING LINKS TO THESE DEATHS”

Terry McGarvey, 48. Dangerously ill from polycytheamia, Terry asked for an ambulance to be called during his Work Capability Assessment. He knew that he wasn’t well enough to attend his WCA but feared that his benefits would be stopped if he did not. He died the following day.

Elaine Lowe, 53. Suffering from COPD and fearful of losing her benefits. In desperation, Elaine chose to commit suicide.

Mark Wood, 44. Found fit for work by Atos, against his Doctors advice and assertions that he had complex mental health problems. Starved to death after benefits stopped, weighing only 5st 8lb when he died.

Paul Reekie, 48, the Leith based Poet and Author. Suffered from severe depression. Committed suicide after DWP stopped his benefits due to an Atos ‘fit for work’ decision.

Leanne Chambers, 30. Suffered depression for many years which took a turn for the worst when she was called in for a WCA. Leanne committed suicide soon after.

Karen Sherlock, 44. Multiple health issues. Found fit for work by Atos and denied benefits. Fought a long battle to get placed into the support group of ESA. Karen died the following month of a heart attack.

Carl Payne, 42. Fears of losing his lifeline benefits due to welfare reform led this Father of two to take his own life.

Tim Salter, 53. Blind and suffering from Agoraphobia. Tim hanged himself after Atos found him fit for work and stopped his benefits.

Edward Jacques, 47 years old and suffering from HIV and Hepatitis C. Edward had a history of severe depression and self-harm. He took a fatal overdose after Atos found him fit for work and stopped his benefits.

Linda Wootton, 49 years old. A double heart and lung transplant patient. Died just nine days after the government found her fit for work, their refusal letter arriving as she lay desperately ill in her hospital bed.

Steven Cawthra, 55. His benefits stopped by the DWP and with rising debts, he saw suicide as the only way out of a desperate situation.

Elenore Tatton, 39 years old. Died just weeks after the government found her fit for work.

John Walker, 57, saddled with debt because of the bedroom tax, John took his own life.

Brian McArdle, 57 years old. Suffered a fatal heart attack the day after his disability benefits were stopped.

Stephen Hill, 53. Died of a heart attack one month after being found fit for work, even though he was waiting for major heart surgery.

Jacqueline Harris, 53. A former Nurse who could hardly walk was found fit for work by Atos and her benefits withdrawn. in desperation, she took her own life.

David Barr, 28. Suffering from severe mental difficulties. Threw himself from a bridge after being found fit for work by Atos and failing his appeal.

David Groves, 56. Died of a heart attack the night before taking his work capability assessment. His widow claimed that it was the stress that killed him.

Nicholas Peter Barker, 51. Shot himself after being told his benefits were being stopped. He was unable to work after a brain haemorrhage left him paralysed down one side.

Mark and Helen Mullins, 48 and 59 years old. Forced to live on £57.50 a week and make 12 mile trips each week to get free vegetables to make soup. Mark and Helen both committed suicide.

Richard Sanderson, 44. Unable to find a job and with his housing benefit cut forcing him to move, but with nowhere to go. Richard committed suicide.

Martin Rust, 36 years old. A schizophrenic man who killed himself two months after the government found him fit to work.

Craig Monk, 43. A vulnerable gentleman and a partial amputee who slipped so far into poverty that he hanged himself.

Colin Traynor, 29, and suffering from epilepsy was stripped of his benefits. He appealed. Five weeks after his death his family found he had won his appeal.

Elaine Christian, 57 years old. Worried about her work capability assessment, she was subsequently found at Holderness drain, drowned and with ten self inflicted wrist wounds.

Christelle and Kayjah Pardoe, 32 years and 5 month old. Pregnant, her benefits stopped, Christelle, clutching her baby son jumped from a third floor balcony.

Mark Scott, 46. His DLA and housing benefit stopped and sinking into deep depression, Mark died six weeks later.

Cecilia Burns, 51. Found fit for work while undergoing treatment for breast cancer. She died just a few weeks after she won her appeal against the Atos decision.

Chris Cann, 57 years old. Found dead in his home just months after being told he had to undergo a medical assessment to prove he could not work.

Peter Hodgson, 49. Called to JCP to see if he was suitable for volunteer work. Peter had suffered a stroke, a brain haemorrhage and had a fused leg. His appointment letter arrived a few days after he took his own life.

Stephanie Bottrill, 53. After paying £80 a month for bedroom tax, Stephanie could not afford heating in the winter, and lived on tinned custard. In desperation, she chose to walk in front of a lorry.

Larry Newman suffered from a degenerative lung condition, his weight dropping from 10 to 7 stone. Atos awarded him zero points, he died just three months after submitting his appeal.

Paul Turner, 52 years old. After suffering a heart attack, he was ordered to find a job in February. In April Paul died from ischaemic heart disease.

Christopher Charles Harkness, 39. After finding out that the funding for his care home was being withdrawn, this man who suffered with mental health issues, took his own life.

Sandra Louise Moon, 57. Suffering from a degenerative back condition, depression and increasingly worried about losing her incapacity benefit. Sandra committed suicide by taking an overdose.

Lee Robinson, 39 years old. Took his own life after his housing benefit and council tax were taken away from him.

David Coupe, 57. A Cancer sufferer found fit for work by Atos in 2012. David lost his sight, then his hearing, then his mobility, and then his life.

Michael McNicholas, 34. Severely depressed and a recovering alcoholic. Michael committed suicide after being called in for a Work Capability Assessment by Atos.

Victor Cuff, 59 and suffering from severe depression. Victor hanged himself after the DWP stopped his benefits.

Charles Barden, 74. Charles committed suicide by hanging due to fears that the Bedroom Tax would leave him destitute and unable to cope.

Ian Caress, 43. Suffered multiple health issues and deteriorating eyesight. Ian was found fit for work by Atos, he died ten months later having lost so much weight that his family said that he resembled a concentration camp victim.

Iain Hodge, 30. Suffered from the life threatening illness, Hughes Syndrome. Found fit for work by Atos and benefits stopped, Iain took his own life.

Wayne Grew, 37. Severely depressed due to government cuts and the fear of losing his job, Wayne committed suicide by hanging.

Kevin Bennett, 40. Kevin a sufferer of schizophrenia and mental illness became so depressed after his JSA was stopped that he became a virtual recluse. Kevin was found dead in his flat several months later.

David Elwyn Hughs Harries, 48. A disabled man who could no longer cope after his parents died, could find no help from the government via benefits. David took an overdose as a way out of his solitude.

Denis Jones, 58. A disabled man crushed by the pressures of government cuts, in particular the Bedroom Tax, and unable to survive by himself. Denis was found dead in his flat.

Shaun Pilkington, 58. Unable to cope any more, Shaun shot himself dead after receiving a letter from the DWP informing him that his ESA was being stopped.

Paul ?, 51. Died in a freezing cold flat after his ESA was stopped. Paul appealed the decision and won on the day that he lost his battle to live.

Chris MaGuire, 61. Deeply depressed and incapable of work, Chris was summonsed by Atos for a Work Capability Assessment and deemed fit for work. On appeal, a judge overturned the Atos decision and ordered them to leave him alone for at least a year, which they did not do. In desperation, Chris took his own life, unable to cope anymore.

Peter Duut, a Dutch national with terminal cancer living in the UK for many years found that he was not entitled to benefits unless he was active in the labour market. Peter died leaving his wife destitute, and unable to pay for his funeral.

George Scollen, age unknown. Took his own life after the government closed the Remploy factory he had worked in for 40 years.

Julian Little, 47. Wheelchair bound and suffering from kidney failure, Julian faced the harsh restrictions of the Bedroom Tax and the loss of his essential dialysis room. He died shortly after being ordered to downgrade.

Miss DE, Early 50’s. Suffering from mental illness, this lady committed suicide less than a month after an Atos assessor gave her zero points and declared her fit for work.

Robert Barlow, 47. Suffering from a brain tumour, a heart defect and awaiting a transplant, Robert was deemed fit for work by Atos and his benefits were withdrawn. He died penniless less than two years later.

Carl Joseph Foster-Brown, 58. As a direct consequence of the wholly unjustifiable actions of the Job centre and DWP, this man took his own life.

Martin Hadfield, 20 years old. Disillusioned with the lack of jobs available in this country but too proud to claim benefits. Utterly demoralised, Martin took his own life by hanging himself.

Annette Francis, 30. A mum-of-one suffering from severe mental illness, found dead after her disability benefits were ceased.

Ian Jordan, 60. His benefits slashed after Atos and the DWP declared Ian, a sufferer of Barratt’s Oesophagus, fit for work, caused him to run up massive debts in order to survive. Ian was found dead in his flat after taking an overdose.

Janet McCall, 53. Terminally ill with pulmonary fibrosis and declared ‘Fit for Work’ by Atos and the DWP, this lady died 5 months after her benefits were stopped.

Stuart Holley, 23. A man driven to suicide by the DWP’s incessant pressure and threat of sanctions for not being able to find a job.

Graham Shawcross, 63. A sufferer of the debilitating disease, Addison’s. Died of a heart attack due to the stress of an Atos ‘Fit for Work’ decision.

David Clapson, 59 years old. A diabetic ex-soldier deprived of the means to survive by the DWP and the governments harsh welfare reforms, David died all but penniless, starving and alone, his electricity run out.

Chris Smith, 59. Declared ‘Fit for Work’ by Atos as he lay dying of Cancer in his hospital bed.

Nathan Hartwell, 36, died of heart failure after an 18-month battle with the ­Department for Works and Pensions.

Michael Connolly, 60. A Father of One, increasingly worried about finances after his benefits were cut. Committed suicide by taking 13 times the fatal dose of prescription medicine on the 30th October – His Birthday.

Jan Mandeville, 52, A lady suffering from Fibromyalgia, driven to the point of mental and physical breakdown by this governments welfare reforms. Jan was found dead in her home after battling the DWP for ESA and DLA.

Trevor Drakard, 50 years old. A shy and reserved, severe epileptic who suffered regular and terrifying fits almost his entire life, hounded to suicide by the DWP who threatened to stop his life-line benefits.

Death of a severely disabled Dorset resident, unnamed, who took her own life while battling the bedroom tax.

After ATOS medical examinations came under scrutiny in 2013 , they were trashed as not being fit for purpose and low quality.
In an effort to distance themselves from the reports, the DWP issued guidance to its own Decision Makers. The content of the memo was leaked to the newspapers but the full memo was held from public view even after a freedom of information appeal was launched…………..

12. In exceptional circumstances, should all sources of evidence be exhausted and it is still not
possible to reach a decision on balance of probabilities, the designated person may seek
advice from ATOS using the DBD 385 via the medical evidence wizard.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………….

……………..what this memo is telling staff, is that they must exhaust all sources of evidence before turning to ATOS as a last resort.

“THE SAME ATOS WHO HAVE RELEASED STAFF TO GO WORK FOR MAXIMUS WHO IN TURN ARE USING ATOS SOFTWARE”

IF YOU LOOK AT THE OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE ATOS LIMA SOFTWARE, IT SHOWS QUITE PLAINLY THAT THE ATOS HCP CAN SELECT AN OPTION TO SHOW THAT THE CLAIMANT COULD NOT DO WHAT WAS ASKED OF THEM DURING A MEDICAL DUE TO PAIN ETC.

RATHER THAN SELECT THIS OPTION, ATOS MEDICAL STAFF WERE INSTRUCTED TO WRITE THE WORDS “CLIENT DECLINED”, ON THEIR MEDICAL REPORTS……………….

THIS IN TURN WAS THEN TAKEN TO MEAN THAT THE “CLIENT REFUSED TO DO WHAT WAS ASKED OF THEM”, BY DWP DECISION MAKERS TO DENY CLAIMANTS OF THEIR BENEFITS…………

15 February 2013

Dear Ms Bellows
Freedom of Information Act – Request for Information

Our Reference: FOI 407

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request which we received on 25 January 2013.

You asked:

With reference to ESA Work Capability Assessments

What does ‘Declined’ mean when used in an ESA medical report form?

Is there an option in LIMA other than free text which allows giving reasons for a client
to decline to attempt to do something or to decline examination? Because of pain for
example?

What do DM interpret ‘Declined’ to mean when seen in a medical report and when
there are no explanations?

How can ‘Declined’ be shown in a medical report when the available LiMA
documentation doesn’t list ‘Declined’ as an option for the HCP to select?

The explanation does not appear in guidance, but in order to provide an explanation “decline” is
a word used by our computer system (“LiMA”). It does not differentiate between ‘will not’ and
‘cannot’ perform a movement, but highlights the fact that it is not a movement a customer
followed through on the day of the examination. It is intended as a descriptor to highlight to the
Decision Maker at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) the customer’s ability on the
day of the assessment.

Figures show that the DWP overspend comes despite debilitating cuts to working people and families

New analysis shows that social security spending by the Department for Work & Pensions has been £25 billion higher than George Osborne planned in this parliament.

The figures, commissioned by shadow chancellor Ed Balls and shadow work and pensions secretary Rachel Reeves, cast grave doubt over George Osborne’s ability to deliver the savings he has promised for the next parliament.

The £25 billion comes despite changes that have left families on average £974 a year worse off and despite recent falls in unemployment.

Osborne has been talking about making £12 billion more cuts to social security after the election, but he has overspent by more than twice this amount in parliament, according to the figures.

This means that if parliament had had a welfare cap the Tories would have breached it.

Analysis of the figures shows that the Tories have overspent by £1.4 billion on housing benefit for people in work; this is over four times the amount they have saved in housing benefit from people moving into work.

Furthermore, the number of people in work who need to claim housing benefits to make ends meet has increased by over 50 per cent since 2010, with this figure set to double by 2018/19.

The government has also spent over £8 billion more than they planned to on incapacity benefits, due to their chaotic delivery of reforms and failure to help disabled people into work.

Delays to the delivery of the Personal Independence Payment have meant uncertainty for thousands of disabled people, and have been a mounting cost to taxpayers, with £1.7 billion more spent than planned over the parliament.

And £130 million has been wasted on failed IT for Universal Credit, which is still reaching less than one per cent of its intended caseload.

yeah, funny how these fucking workfare schemes always involve heavy, manual labour, like lifting, shovelling snow out in the fucking snow… you would think that they were trying to give their victims a heart attack and kill them…. cunts!!

Workfare schemes are an exercise in deference and subservience testing the British peoples compliance levels. Consequently a welfare penal system criminalising the “economically inactive” while at the same time discrediting and reducing their human stock value to that of a disposable slave.

That’s the intention, cull all of those the Tories consider “useless eaters”. It’s been that since they slithered into power in 2010. This shower of human ordure obviously modelled themselves on Adolph Hitler.

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